Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've been playing 40k for over ten years now. Of course I read the background of the armies I played as well as most Imperial Army books. Of the Black library novels I only read Rebel Winter and that one was bad enough to 'cure' me for quite some time.

Recently I re-read Imperial Armour 4: the Anphelion project. That one is completely to my liking: grim, dark, mysterious and realistic (as far as possible then), small scale and not over-the-top. It reads a bit like a detailed WWII history book which is exactly in my street.

I like to read about guard, Nids and orks. Could you advice me some of the books which I would like?

Eisenhorn series is pretty great, the scale is *relatively* small for the 40k universe too.

It's all about an inquisitor doing inquisition things. Would recommend.

If you don't mind not taking the setting too seriously, then the Ciaphas Cain books are good reads. Definitely features GSC as antagonists in a couple of them, also features Orks as antagonists as well.

The Gaunt's Ghosts series by Dan Abnett was good as far as I got with it, but I am a few books out of date.

In theory, the series entitled The Beast Arises is Ork-antagonist-focused, but by reputation includes some elements that aren't well-received. Is also set in M32, I think, not M41.

I read only 3, and out of those I did read, Crossfire was good, Space Wolf was interesting for the non space marine parts, and Spear of the Emperor was god aweful.

I also read two shorter ones, one was about iron warriors doing a siege of an imperial fist fortress, though I don't remember the name of that one, but it was good too. And the last one was about inquisitor running away from 1k sons. I think it was called space marine.

I've heard Peter Fehervari recommended a lot. I'm also an ADB fan. Master of Mankind was cool.

ADB is good but his work TENDS to be marine-centric. so might not work for the author (that said I reccomend him even to non Marine fans a good story is a good story no matter who the protagionist is)

Agree on adb. His night lords trilogy is my favorite series. If you're looking for guard try the baneblade books by guy haley. Also the Hammer of the Emperor anthology has some good stuff. If you can find the Last Chancers books their fun. Basically The Dirty Dozen in space.

I am sold on Chris Wraight after reading watchers of the throne, really good book in my opinion.

Thanks a lot for all the recomendations. I've read the synopsis of a few of them and will stat with the Baneblade and Gaunt's ghost books.

Gaunts Ghosts is a great place to start. The Horus Heresy series can be hit or miss, but the first few are definitely solid hits.

The Gathering Storm 1, 2, and 3 ... campaign books? that go over the start of the primaris marines and stuff were great reading too.

 Yonan wrote:


The Gathering Storm 1, 2, and 3 ... campaign books? that go over the start of the primaris marines and stuff were great reading too.

I am not so much into Primaris marines. Like to kill 'em on the tabletop though

 Singleton Mosby wrote:

 Yonan wrote:


The Gathering Storm 1, 2, and 3 ... campaign books? that go over the start of the primaris marines and stuff were great reading too.

I am not so much into Primaris marines. Like to kill 'em on the tabletop though

If you've not read some of the post gathering storm books that deal with them it's worth doing so actually, a llotta em are fleshing out marines nicely.

I second the Eisenhorn recommendation, and would recommend the companion Ravenor series as well. That series was the one that hooked me back into the 40k setting real hard. The struggle of an Inquisitor slowly falling onto the path of the radical by attempting to make the best of the situations he must face really captures the grimdark aesthetic of 40k in my opinion. You also get to see a closer look at some of the more domestic sides of the setting, which often is not seen in more marine-centric fare.

Also agree with those recommending ADB, as I have yet to be disappointed by one of his books. The Night Lord trilogy is really great if you want to read something with a Traitor legion focus as opposed to an Imperium focus.

Also, if you like Orks then I would recommend Sanctus Reach as there are a couple stories told from Ork viewpoints in that one if I recall correctly.

When anyone ever asks for recommendations for 40k novels you'll always hear the usual suspects mentioned such as Eisenhorn and Ravenor, and for good reason, but there are some books that fewer people will have read or even heard of that are fantastic reads. I've been an avid fan of BL fiction since I bought a copy of First & Only in 1996. I've literally got a huge wall full of BL fiction, so I've read enough to find some unexpected gems that took me by surprise. You said you like Guard, Space Prawns and Orks, so with those in mind I heartily recommend the following:

Cadian Blood by Aaron Dembski-Bowden: This was ADB's first published novel by BL, and what a book it is! It's about the 'Guard being deployed to a planet infested by the plague of Nurgle. I can't recommend this book enough. It sucks you right in from the very beginning. The scenes are written so well that even now, ten years after I read it, I still recall scenes that jumped out at me, such as one where a squad of Storm Troopers burst through the glass roof of a building and rappell down to the ground while blazing away with their hot-shot lasguns. It's also got Typhus in it!

Cadia Stands by Justin D Hill: This is a recent book by an author who's relatively new to BL, which is why I went into this book without knowing anything about the author. This is set during Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade when Cadia was beset by Chaos forces. I really liked the way this book was written. It read exceptionally well, the pages practically turning themselves. I've just got a copy of the follow up but haven't got round to reading it yet.

Chains of Golgotha by David Annandale: I have to confess, I'm not exactly a huge fan of this author. Much of his work, for me, felt like filler material. That said, I enjoyed his latest HH book, Ruinstorm, but I digress. Chains of Golgotha is a novella that's by far and away Annandale's best BL work to date. It's the story of Commissar Yarrick and how he got his bionic Orc power claw, among other things. It's also got Orcs in it. The battle scenes at the very beginning are absolutely incredible. The way Annandale describes how the shadows of titans can be seen through the battle fog sets an atmosphere that grabs you by the nethers and doesn't let go until the final page. Yarrick has an interesting relationship with the Orc Warlord Ghazghull Mag Uruk Thraka, and this novella explains beautifully how and why these two characters' fates became entwined with each other. This is one of those books you'll want to read again. It's that good!

The Gothic War by Gordon Rennie: I don't know how rare this book is, but I strongly recommend you try to get your hands on a copy. I bought this as a made-to-order purchase from BL. Instead of stocking this book BL only made a copy if someone ordered one, which meant I had to wait a month or two before it arrived, but once it did I set to reading it, and boy am I glad I did! It's set on some battleship and tells the story of different crew members during the 13th Black Crusade. It features some unforgettable characters, such as a ruthlessly ambitious deck hand who claws his way up the ranks with a determined mixture of physical prowess and intimidation. His way of diplomacy is beating them to a pulp and blasting them out of the nearest airlock. Even the ship's commissar is wary of him, but he gets away with things because the captain thinks he's great. It also features scheming Chaos Marines from the Black Legion as well as eldar. There's an absolutely spectacular scene where Orcs take on an Avatar. This is possibly the hardest book to get your hands on, but if you can manage to aquire one you won't be disappointed.

Hope this helps!

If you like orks, you can't go far wrong with the graphic novel Deff Skwadron!

HH: Legion is one of my favs.

The Gothic War was originally published as Execution Hour and Shadow Point, if that helps. I came here to recommend them, as well as Ciaohas Cain.
(The Cain books are great and often feature Nids.)

For guard, I'd recommend the first book in William King's Macharius trilogy. The second and third book are fine, but not in the same level. Warriors of Ultramar features a Tyranid hive fleet invading an Uktramarines world in quite an enjoyable manner, although the ending might not jive with the current fluff.

Some of the old short story collections were really good. If you like short stories, I can recommend some of them.

Pretty much anything by Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, John French and Chris Wraight is great. An honorable mention for Peter Fahervari, who also writes some great and creepy stuff, but is a bit less productive

I will echo people saying Dan Abnett, and if you like Imperial Guard his Gaunt's Ghosts series starts off really well. I think it eventually jumps the shark, but it is really well written. His Horus Heresy novels tend to be good too, and he also wrote some stuff about Titans and of course the very good pair of Inquisition trilogies. If I wanted to introduce someone to 40K I think I would give them First and Only or the first Eisenhorn novel.

Aaron Demski Bowden is very good too. If you like Orks, his book Helsreach deals with the seige of that city. Not his best book but still pretty fun, the main character is a space marine. He tends to focus on Marines and I am not a huge marine fan, but he makes them interesting in my opinion. His Night Lords novels are really great and the stuff he wrote for the Heresy series is great too.

Of the rest of them, you sometimes get a good book here or there but most of the Black Library output is very poor.

Came here to recommend execution hour and shadow point.

The latter imo having a much better depiction of Eldar than modern books and an avatar that is genuinely powerful, skilled and terrifying.

I would suggest the old digital monthly magazine Hammer and Bolter. You can also find a 'best of' collection in paperback.

Regarding Gaunt's Ghosts, the first two books really aren't that great. It's the third book, Necropolis, where the series really takes off. And then I recommend ending the series with Sabbat Martyr; everything after that feels forced and a bit cynical towards the fandom.